Persian Gulf: Mission Awry

It was to have been a quiet peace
mission, as the official Algerian announcement described it, "to try to
stop the bleeding from which both the brotherly peoples of Iraq and
Iran are suffering." Algerian Foreign Minister Mohammed Seddik
Benyahia, 50, the gifted negotiator who helped mediate the release of
the 52 American hostages from Iran early last year, and eight other
senior Algerian officials were en route to Tehran to try to end the war
that has racked Iran and Iraq for 19 months. But as Benyahia's Grumman
Gulfstream II executive jet last week flew near...